Oofdah. We're back. This morning I collected Nilly at 9:00am, and then took her, Laura, JZ and Emmett on a walk straight up Tank Hill to see all the quirky, lovely houses on the heights and have the fantastic view from up there. Then we toured Haight Street where I stopped at Kid Robot and got Nilly a little Moomin figure. We scurried back to the car and drove to The Mission where in just thirty minutes we hit: Ruby's (local artist jewelry and gifts - named after the black pug who lives there, and who Emmett coos over); Borderland Books (science fiction and fantasy, where the hairless cat lives - though she was hiding - much to Emmett's disappointment); Paxton Gate (where I got my Hamlet Mouse. Nilly made faces at all the dead things.); 826 Valencia (aka, The Pirate Store) where I made Nilly wear a pirate hat for pictures.

Deb arrived with Jessica (whose blue hair looks amazing), Teppy and they collected Laura and Nilly for the wine tour, and we said our goodbyes. We were just about to leave, when KristinT and Lee and Sean spotted us, so we went back and did all the stores in reverse. Kristin bought the Uses of Lard broadsheet for her classroom. We walked them back to their car, and Kristin took them to the airport.

We are home and wiped. I can't imagine doing a wine tour on top of this, but thankfully they're all contentedly nestled in a car for most of it. They were very excited about driving across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Yesterday, when I walked people through the park, we saw some turtles and somebody (not me) made a joke about turtle sex, and I saw Nilly wrinkle her nose in distaste. So now I know exactly the face she's making when she reads porny comments on the board.

Matt, are you driving in? Flying in? I probably can't meet you early, because my getting-to-Nora&Tom's time is up in the air (depending on when Scott gets home). I'm just nosy. Do you know your way around Somerville? When do you expect to get into town? Where are you staying?

Deb/Hec/SFistas/LAistas, is there any specific Kosher symbol that Nilly needs to see on wine?

Kristin bought the Uses of Lard broadsheet for her classroom.

This makes me very happy.

Can someone who has Nilly's cel number email me and/or Nora with it? Might be handy in the (very) slim chance we have trouble finding her at Logan.

I saw Nilly wrinkle her nose in distaste. So now I know exactly the face she's making when she reads porny comments on the board.

Shouldn't we have a picture of this? Who could make porny comments at Nilly's next stop on Nilly Tour 2004 when a camera was ready to take a shot?

How is Nilly's porny-comment wrinkle different from her dead-things wrinkle?

waves to libkitty

Ages later (ok, two days, but it seems much longer because of the number of posts)... waves back to Hec.

I just have to add how wonderful it is to see all of the wonderfully detailed and evocative posts of Nillyfest, punctuated by wonderful pictures of beautiful, relaxed folks clearly having a great time. Between the descriptions and pics, the feelings of inclusiveness (for even those not there) and good vibes are literally starving my jealousy demons almost out of existence. I'm literally getting warm fuzzies as I read this thread. Pretty soon, I should have no jealousy left at all, and will have turned into a saint.

How is Nilly's porny-comment wrinkle different from her dead-things wrinkle?

Dunno. Shouldn't there be, like a test or something to find out? Something horribly convulted.

Yesterday, when I walked people through the park, we saw some turtles and somebody (not me) made a joke about turtle sex, and I saw Nilly wrinkle her nose in distaste. So now I know exactly the face she's making when she reads porny comments on the board.

Oh man. NYC's going to be such fun, with Super Porny Pants' porny pants and my penchant for turning anything and everything into sexual innuendo, if you know what I mean.

Okay, I'm starting some checking on hotel and rates and such in Kansas City and it's looking very affordable. There are listed rates at nice hotels as low as $75/night so we should hopefully get some very good group rates. A quick list of hotels in the Plaza (Which is where we would probably want to stay) is here. Can anyone do the ground work with these hotels with me? I'm doing what I can over the net, but I'm not going to have a ton of time to get on the phone and fax machine this week.

More fabulous pictures, JZ! Looks like so. much. fun. And libkitty nails it ... the lovely descriptions, reports, pictures, and sharing of the good that is NillyTour 2004 warm the heart.